One of the Dandelions that Kellen engaged was clipped on the left side as it blazed by a group of VFs and, with its hull integrity compromised and unable to follow through on the drop, broke off and tried to return to the escort ship --- just as the Salvation's guns lanced through two of the transports and one of the escort cruisers, sending them sinking towards the Earth; Meanwhile, the Cheyenne and point fire from the rest of the fleet had managed to shoot down three of the Barzams as they plummeted, causing them to alight in bright, falling fireballs.

At this point, however, the Barzams were beginning to fall past the Salvation forces' elevation and, falling all around them, turned in all directions, most of them firing their Beam Rifles in a volley towards the VFs around them; Given a bit more time, they would be at ballute deployment altitude, the maximum optimal distance in which the Barzams' Ballutes should be deployed. The cruisers likewise turned their guns downwards and fired, sending a small burst of beams at the nearby enemies and the Salvation, while the more active Dandelions swerved quickly, serving their purpose as high-speed re-entry interception units, and rained Beam Cannon fire onto the Cheyennes, knowing that they had to intercept them before they did any more damage to the attacking forces.

Two of those, having sighted Kellen, turned quickly and gave pursuit, their targeting reticles lining up with her machine as they fired four shots, two each, at her.

Theo Rawn was slightly concerned that the pirates he had faced before were now assisting him against the Fandom, but he was willing to accept any help. "Very well, Necronomicon, we accept your help."

One of his operator spoke up, informing him that General Armstrong was contacting them. "Put her on" he replied.

"Colonel, I hope your know what your doing" said the General, her eyes hard.

"I do believe we can trust them for now, General," Rawn replied. "They have no wish to see the Fandom succeed. I cannot vouch for them after that."

"Alright, Rawn, I'll trust your judgement."

"Thank you, ma'am." As the link cut out Rawn turned to his crew and begun gving out orders, "OK, people, were gonna try to break the Fandom here. Close the shutter, and contact Commander Steele about the Pirates, I'l transferring to the combat bridge. It's up to the mobile suits now."

With a few swift commands, the chair Rawn was sitting on descended into the cramped red-lighted combat bridge, a large sphere representing the battle zone before him. "Target the nearest enemy ship and fire everything!"

- Maarek Steele -

"Understood, Wolf, Steele out." Quickly looking around, he saw the group from the Wolf as well as three Jesta pilots, whom he singled out. "Alimet, Ketcher, Carith, your with me. Rend, you take your team with Mai and support us."

"Yes sir!" Came the unanimous reply. Steele tightened his grip on the handles, feeling the many controls through his pure black pilot suit. "OK, lets go!"

-----------------

- Merciless -

"Where the hell did they come from!" roared one of the operators, refeerring of couse to the pirates now assisting the Federation. "Sir, we've lost another Musai to that fire."

"Never mind that, redirect some forces to counter them, use the Hambrambis and turn the Meciless, we'll use the positron blaster cannon." He turned to his companions and said, "I think it's time to make our debut. Silri, I need you to contain the Federation. Remove as many as you can, I giving full reign here. Urai, you come with me."

"I would have it no other way, Tyber." replied the older man. Silri merely smiled dangerously.

Soon, the Bertigo was diving toward the federation lines, and the Byalant, R-Jarja and 15 Hambrabis, powered toward the new interlopers to the Fandoms destiny. As they came in range the Hambrabi's fired their feyadeen rifles at the unfamiliar machines.

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

"Right, you heard the man. SPARTANs! Suppression!" Melodius simply said, and watched as the forward volley of Hambrabi fire was absorbed by the front row of Mercuriuses, their Planet Defensors deployed and sparking around them in defensive layers, absorbing the blasts neatly; As the Mercuriuses promptly returned fire at the foremost wave of Fandom Mobile Suits with their own Shorty Rifles, the Vayeates lined up in disciplined rows behind them, their Mega Cannons raised and charging with glowing yellow light --- which then fired in unison, sending a second volley of powerful blasts at the Fandom ships while the Mercuriuses fired to keep the MSes at bay.

"Hah! Time to get into the thick of it!" Was what TM cooed as the Duraxyll started its own approach, coming in at the Fandom forces from underneath and firing the Duraxyll's Mega Buster Cannon at the Hambrabis in neat bursts; At the same time, the Dezpada spun once and raised both its arms, pointing its binders forward...as the Missile Launchers opened up and fired, sending a wave of missiles forward in a mass spread to aid TM's fire.

The two Machines that had Targeted her would find it difficult to maintain a lock due to Powerful ECMs, It wasn't impossible to fire at her just difficult to do it accurately, with a burst of her thrusters she moved "upwards" letting the beam cannons pass below her.

Kellen retaliated quickly producing two halves of a boomerang and combining them. She Threw the back and red weapon at one of the Dandelions. the Stealth boomerang as the Dandelion pilot would discover was equipped with it's ow tricks as when it seemed to be approaching from above it actually struck from below. what was more the momet it began it's return trip Kellen was there catching the boomerang and dividing it in two. With one cutter on each arm Kellen charged the same Dandelion and made two swift, efficient strikes.

_________________"If You are a man you'll do what's important before you grieve" -Captain Harlock

"I like the SAGA. Its what Rambo would pilot if he was in Gundam 00" -Kylern

The captain gave an order as the beam fire from the cruisers started to impact the armor of the battleship. "Rely a warning to our allies on Earth that a drop is coming at them. We will continue to fight until we are pushed into the atmosphere." The communication's officer gave a yes sir and started to broadcast an SOS on using high intensity laser communication.

Along the ship's body the defense robots, or Cheyennes, were taking a beating. The last three units were only able to unload their full complement of missiles before finally being destroyed by beam fire. Omega Wolf and their Konig Monster loaded another set of 40cm rail-cannon rounds and unloaded both the massive quad-guns as well as six heavy anti-ship missiles at one of the nearest cruisers threatening the ships life.

The Salvation started to drop deeper into orbit as it fought for its very life. The two large anti-ship energy cannons turned upwards and fired at its attackers while the lighter guns continued to try and take out the small fry swarming it. But as beam fire engulfed it the ship was beginning to deteriorate as the main engines began to fail.

"When we enter critical altitude fire one of the reaction missiles into the SNRI fleet and get rid of them. Then we will attempt to glide into DC waters. All fighters will be forced to re-enter on their own..." The order was given as the time ticked away.

-Wolfs & LLF-

The VF squads were losing as they tried to clean up the enemy. Missiles and light beam fire was met with intense rifle fire from the larger MS used by SNRI. The standard VF weren't like the Messiah... even the 11Gs were unable to stop more than two beam rifle shots with their PPBs before they were finally destroyed. Both teams would suffer absolute loses before they could reach friendly territory.

-Ryder & Messer-

Messer pushed his Super VF-17S (Beam FAST pack) into the enemy ship group. Unlike the standard VF fighter the beam cannon fast pack packed powerful weaponry on par with MS. These cannons, along with missiles were used against the transport ships and frigates in order for the LLF leader to score some sort of victory in this battle.

Ryder wasn't so lucky... The VF-25S was unable to escape gravity fast enough and was drug into the critical moment to quick. The stress caused the FAST pack to be ejected before the complement of missiles exploded. Ryder looked up to see his friends and allies blown away while he headed for Earth on his own.

At that point, as the combined desperation fire from the Salvation forces lit up around the drop forces, another four Barzams and two Dandelions --- one of them lost to Kellen's Stealth Boomerang as the blade cleaved through it dramatically --- exploded in upward flares as the remainder of the force continued to plummet, four more of the emptied transports and another cruiser exploding as the Salvation and Kyle's combined fire continued to cut through them. By this point, however, all of the transports had managed to empty their Mobile Suit complements, and a mass of SNRI Mobile Suits now dotted the atmosphere; Even with the destruction of some of the transports before they could unload completely, there were still upwards of forty-two Barzams and sixteen Dandelions that would, at this point, fall towards and above Aidoneus.

And then, the Ballutes on the Barzams opened in unison as they reached the optimized depth. As the ballutes burst open and inflated into giant round cushions, the Barzams were bounced onto them and swerved upwards, looking at the units above them; With their descent slowed, the Barzams were drifting past the Salvation, floating up, as the Ballutes slowed them and pulled the majority of the group above the ship, and the Barzams that were firing down once were now firing up to fend off whatever they could while they floated by the LLF forces. The Dandelions, however, were permitted to hold on just a little longer before they had to deploy their own re-entry modes, and they moved and swerved through the VF-formations as best they could, trying to take advantage of that. Their long-range Beam Rifles aimed down and fired at the Omega Wolf units while, towards any units that got too close, their Claw Arms attempted to grapple and rip through the VFs they passed by. One such Dandelion attempted to do so, swiping at Kellen's unit with both its claws, transformed into MA mode, as it flew quickly by.

In the distance, however, something was coming in, towards the battle, from high above, riding on a Subflight System of some sort --- and it was coming in fast...

As the pilots expressed their shock at the ineffectiveness of the feyadeens, they were forced to evade the fire from both in front and below. One was too slow and the pod shot through the back of the suit just before it was shredded by the beams from the Mercuriuses. "Hambrambi Team," called Tyber, trying to gain some order back in his lines, "Long range fire is no longer effective, move in to close quarters. Target the blue ones."

Acknowledging this, the Hambrabis moved in close and split into seven team of two. While one fired at a Mecurius, his partner would try and push through and target the more vulnerable Vayeates with the beam rifles or feyadeen beam saber.

Tyber called out to Urai, not done with his instructions. "Urai, the unique ones are probably the commanders. You take the big one. I'll get the one with the shields." Tyber had a gut feeling that that one was the bigger fish, and the Earth Sphere was, relative speaking, a small pond.

"On my honour, Tyber" replied the older man, and spinning the R-Jarja, made a beeline for the Duraxyl, firing twice from the beam rifle, just to get his attention.

For his part, Tyber opened up the Byalant's incredible thrust and shot toward the Dezpada, firing a powerful beam from the mega particle gun in the hand, bracing it with the other.

- Main Attack Force -

Silri, on the other hand was slaughtering her way through the Federation forces. Her bits had already dispatched five mobile suits and was homing in on a sixth, the secondary monoeye in the torso blazing malevolently, when she was forced to avoid beam fire from a new group, her Newtype senses warning her of the danger. "That as far as you go, you white devil." boomed the voice of Maarek Steele from his blue Gundam. To his men he ordered, "Surround her, we'll end this now."

Silri just smiled and all of a sudden the bits that she had released fired from behind the Federal mobile suits from behind, destroying the three Jestas, leaving only Steele, who had barely managed to avoid the ambush, leaving a large burn mark along one leg.

"You bitch, you'll pay for that!" He spun and fired the beam spray gun mounted on the left arm at one of the bits, destroying it, and releasing two of the fin funnels, which moved of the fire at the Bertigo, which, its arms locked into it flight mode spun delicately between the beams. Silri's preferred way of fighting was to fire only barely past her own mobile suit, dodging beams was something she did almost without thinking. It would take more than two funnels to catch her.

- Merciless -

On the bridge of the flagship, the officer left in charge shifted nervously, they had barely avoided the beams from the enemies coming from behind the main fleet. Another Musai had not been so lucky. "Argh!" he cried out suddenly, "How much longer until the positron blaster is charged!"

"A few more seconds, sir" came the reply from the weapons officer.

"Good, send Colonel Zann our firing solution and a countdown. We don't want any of our own to get caught up. Make sure it's encrypted and on direct laser communication."

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

"I suppose that makes you the leader..." Melodius smirked confidently as the Byalant came at his Dezpada, firing a large Mega Particle blast while moving for him fast; The Dezpada was no slouch, either, however. Leaping out of the way nimbly as the beam passed by its right leg, Melodius brought the Dezpada forward and up as well in a dash, pointing its right binder outwards at Tyber's Byalant --- its own Beam Cannon lit up for a moment with bright, yellow light before letting loose with a burst of small beams at the Byalant, while the Dezpada's other hand drew a Beam Saber to ready itself for Tyber's charge. "...Good. That saves me some trouble trying to end this encounter, at least. Eat 4d6 Sunbeam Scroll damage and my Use Magic Device ranks!"

TM only rolled his eyes inwardly at the talk about the Use Magic Device thingmajick, the Duraxyll swerving past the R-Jarja's beams in a right sidestep and drawing its own oversized Hi-Mega Beam Saber in response as it closed in, swinging it downwards at the R-Jarja in a quick motion. Even now, TM lamented, he still had no clue what Melodius was saying when he did that. One of these days, he swore...

The SPARTANs were aware of the change in tactics and, as the Hambrabis came in, the Mercuriuses tightened their formation hurriedly while the Vayeates switched their output to a lesser, quicker-firing level; Even so, before the Mercuriuses could layer their Planet Defensors closer together, four Vayeates were lost in this manner before they could get within cover of the Planet Defensor spread, as well as two Mercuriuses who got too close. The remainder, however, managed to tighten their formation --- Planet Defensors clamped together into a bright, viable, modern Shield Wall --- and, now granting Total Cover to the Vayeates, drew the Beam Sabers on their Crash Shields in retort, slashing at the first of the Hambrabis in each team attempting to come at the Vayeates while the Vayeates squeezed off quicker, less powerful suppression shots at the other partner attacking the Mercuriuses.

Kellen didn't curse at the attack. She being a master of hit and run attacks herself countered by avoiding the Claw Arms and stabbing with the right beam dagger as the machine flew by.

What she had cursed t was the situation. She unlike the Valkyries couldn't make a reentyr on her own and she was nearing her own escape limit zone. Her only choices were to either burn almost all of her fuel and be left alone right in front of the SNRI fleet or get back to the Salvation and ride it into reentry. neither choice was a very good one...

_________________"If You are a man you'll do what's important before you grieve" -Captain Harlock

"I like the SAGA. Its what Rambo would pilot if he was in Gundam 00" -Kylern

Her fate was sealed as more beams riddled its hull causing the ship to fall into the atmosphere. But before it dropped too far the long range missile launcher fired a specially tipped cruise missile at the SNRI fleet... Then the ship fell as the crew did everything in its power to keep the ship stead as it free fell to Earth.

The only remaining member of the VF team was the Konig which could aborb fire unlike its smaller cousins. It clung to the deck using its 30mm vulcan cannon to sweep the drop units and make their re-entry more difficult.

-Messer-

The VF-17S was finally shut down as beam fire clipped his machine and sent it into a spin out into space. Whether the machine exploded was unknown...

For a moment, it seemed as if the Salvation had gotten them --- with Ballutes opened and in the middle of re-entry, there was no way the SNRI forces could avoid the Reaction Missile despite that the Konig's desperate attack had only gotten another one of the Barzams at that range. All the while, even the Dandelions were beginning to deploy their plating into re-entry mode, having reached the absolute limit; As the missile shot out of its launcher, it seemed SNRI could do nothing about it...Until two pink beams lanced out shortly after, as if out of nowhere, into the cruise missile with multiple shots, piercing the missile's body repeatedly as two Striker Bits circled around nimbly in what would pretty much be their first --- and final --- flight. This caused the missile to swerve away from both sides like a wounded, crazed bird, deviate in its flight, and finally explode far off its intended mark with a very bright blast that would surely be visible from Earth.

And high above the battlefield, standing next to the ships while on a Flying Armor, a white-and-orange Mobile Suit stared down with a defiant, daring eye, as its pilot in a face-obscuring blue flight suit simply grinned. He didn't even lament the loss of the two Striker Bits as the Tera S'ono then charged forward with unnatural agility, Hand Guns blazing at any stragglers from the LLF side attempting to make desperate attacks; While the Tera S'ono wouldn't be following the rest of the forces into the atmosphere and would be escorting the remaining ships back, there was no stopping this attack now, whether SNRI won or not.

Be it victory or defeat here, the beginning of the end has come, Steve Livingstone nodded approvingly.

Tyber twitched the Byalant down and to the left as the beam passed him by. He quickly took a moment to pass along the data from the Merciless to his team, before returning his to Melodius. "I don't know what you’re saying, but I need you gone. Can you do that for me?" Sliding one of his own beam sabers into the right, hand, Tyber aimed the left Mega Beam Cannon and fired another blast at the Gundam type, before closing and swung the saber in an overhead arc.

Urai as well was preparing for close combat. He drew his large beam saber and quickly raised it over his head to parry the larger machines own saber. As his mobile suit struggled to keep the Duraxyl at bay, Urai dipped his blade slightly, causing it to slide past the Hi-Mega Beam Saber and he used the thrusters to climb above the larger machine and slash downward at the arm holding the saber.

The pilots of the Hambrabis were just as quick to adjust to the new conditions, this time requiring no orders. However, two more of the blue mobile suits were destroyed by the pirates, this time no escape pods were launched. No down to twelve Hambrabis, the group broke off as the message from Tyber reached them. The Merciless was now ready to fire and it wasted no time. A bright red and white beam of energy lanced out from the prow of the ship and arc toward the pirate formation.

When the attack ceased, the Hambrabis, as a united front, charged toward the lines of red and blue mobile suits. Now organized into groups of three, one would distract a Vayete, another would distract a Mercurius, and the third would fire its sea serpent at that Mercurius, hoping to catch it and immobilse it while the first or second took it out. They had figured out that the red ones were responsible for protecting the blue ones and made taking them out the top priority.

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

"How about no. TM!" Was all Melodius said as he brought the Dezpada left, away from the Mega Particle blast --- and suddenly boosted away from Tyber Zann's unit and gaining distance with a burst of speed from the Dezpada's binders, narrowly parrying the Beam Saber with a sideways swipe. While a strange gesture by itself, however --- Melodius wasn't of the type to run so quickly, naturally --- it soon became apparent on Urai's end that when Melodius pulled away, Tuxedo Mask did the same, spinning rightwards out of the path of Urai's own blow. It also then became apparent that the two were heading towards and then past each other...

"Right!"

...And switching opponents, as Melodius' Dezpada came to face with Urai and Tuxedo Mask came to face with Tyber instead. In unison, both re-engaged against their new opponents as they charged; Two of Melodius' four Psyrods suddenly shot out from their Binder rechargers, swerved, and erratically lanced at Urai from the flanks while the Dezpada itself fired two missiles at him from the front, while the Taors Tail binders around the Duraxyll's torso lit up...and pointed outwards as TM inhaled and leaned forward expectantly. "Mega---Smasher!" TM yelled as the binders on the Duraxyll then erupted, sending a volley of slightly curving, multicolored beams at Tyber's Byalant.

Meanwhile, the SPARTANs were not faring as well as their leaders were. Seeing the Hambrabis break off all of a sudden, they realized what was coming, and the Mercuriuses and Vayeates promptly tried to spread out as well --- only to have the Merciless' giant beam come at them, the Mercuriuses suddenly deploying their Planet Defensors at full power in response as they quickly formed into a funnel-like, cone-shaped formation. A bright flash of light enveloped the area, blinding almost everyone as the blast finally met the field of Planet Defensors, shaking the SPARTANs where they were; The blast, however, was condensed by the cone formation towards the center where it 'funneled' out in a much thinner, more concentrated blast at the end, past the Mercuriuses and Vayeates.

Despite this, one of the Mercuriuses at the tail end of the formation was unable to withstand the intensified burst of energy and was incinerated without fanfare, leaving the remainder to meet the Hambrabis' change in formation. Despite being caught by surprise, the SPARTANs did not panic; After losing another Mercurius and two Vayeates to the first wave of attack, the entirety of the force collapsed their own formation in as the Mercuriuses locked shields around each other and the Vayeates faced away from each other at the center --- the combined layers of Planet Defensor emissions as the six remaining Mercuriuses moved into near-perfect symmetry, one each to the north, east, south, west axes, and one up and one down, forming a defensive, mobile sphere that enveloped the four remaining Vayeates with complete cover. As the Mercuriuses' Crash Shields then sliced at any Hambrabi attempting to close towards the sphere in conjunction with sporadic shots from the Shorty Rifles, with the Sea Serpents bouncing off the Planet Defensors harmlessly, the Vayeates continued their support fire, blasting their Mega Cannons at the farther Hambrabis instead to support the Mercuriuses.

Blondes....Wedge Fourteen's absolute weakness. He was barely even listening to her warnings as he floated into his suit banging his head against the hatch.

"I'm-I'm okay!" He said crouching into the tiny cockpit. "Pink? What kinda faerie pilots a pink mobile suit...." He said mumbling to himself feeling a bit emasculated.

Fourteen started to quickly flip the switches and power up the unit. It was a simple suit, with rudimentary transforming capabilities. Best suited for a beginner, the fandom had retired the unit years ago, and most of them were used as training machines. But this one was being used to see how duct taping a GN drive to a transformable mobile suit, would affect it's transformation abilities.

"Alright...this Lt. Fourteen Gaza-C T-type GN launching." Wedge quickly scooted out of the colony and took the Gaza into space. As expected, the suits speed was increased, but the out of sate verniers and other parts made it quite awkward to control.

"Alright Lt. We already know it can handle transformations at low speeds. Please increase the throttle for maxthrust and commence the test."

"Yes Miss Boobie...I mean brady..." He said turning red with embarrassment as he flipped the lever to transform the Gaza and suddenly found himself in a 25 piece mobile suit and floating around in space.

On the bridge of the Sadalhan class Icer watched the Gaza transformed, and fell apart.

"No one could have survived" Icer declared "Move on" he looked down It might be callous but he'd seen the cockpit nearly collapse on itself. even if the pilot hadn't been crushed his pilot suit was likely ruined meaning...

"we are in a hurry, leave recovery for the research team."

-Kellen Cypher-

"Damnit!" she'd wasted too much time; now there was only one choice and it was far from ideal. Turning her back on the earth Kellen began to push the Soleares for all it had. It didn't look like much but she would be able to escape the certain death that entering the atmosphere was.

Of course this would leave her alone, almost empty and facing the entire SNRI fleet and that machine. Even as a non-newtype Kellen could feel an ominous presence from the Tera S'ono but she'd rather face him than certain death. Had she been a newtype that decision might have been very different.

_________________"If You are a man you'll do what's important before you grieve" -Captain Harlock

"I like the SAGA. Its what Rambo would pilot if he was in Gundam 00" -Kylern

With their mission complete, the SNRI ships promptly began pulling away from the Earth's orbit as their Mobile Suits continued their descent beneath them, and wheeled themselves around for the journey back to the Moon without fanfare. It was up to those pilots now whether or not the drop operation was worth anything; The ships' work were finished. Soon, most of them had began floating upwards and some began powering up their engines, eager to put the Earth and whatever was left of the LLF forces behind them --- they didn't even attack Kellen, and seemingly would not have to. And were not ordered to.

All except the Tera S'ono, who simply stared at the one incoming machine left --- the Soleares --- with its taunting, soul-staring Monoeye.

"It is natural to fear for your life," Steve Livingstone's voice echoed outwards, piercing its surroundings with raw psychic power; His voice would seem just as much from the comm channels as it would be from within Kellen's head. "And with no place to go, you decide to come at me. Do you really find no other option than to pick a meaningless fight with me?" Despite this, and Steve's notably amused tone, the Tera S'ono merely hovered there, readily; It had made no move to attack the Soleares yet, as if content to wait for Kellen's response. "Whatever you choose to do here cannot change the fact that the beginning of the end has come. If you have no options, I will give one to you; Do not waste your life in either case."

**WARNING:- Due to this post being very overdue, this is a loooong post**

- Federation Fleet -

The situation was becoming desperate. The few ships left to the Federation were becoming hemmed in by the encircling Fandom. The Jegans and Jestas were being sorely pressed by the transformable mobile armours they were pitted against, and Zssas were breaking through and targeting the ships before being chased off.

General Armstrong, was standing on the bridge, too tense to remain seated. She didn't even stumble as a nearby explosion rocked the bridge. The Victory's main Gottfried cannons were blazing almost non-stop, but were close to doing absolutely nothing due to M-Particle interference. The Clops and the Grey Wolf were similarly embattled, relying on scant numbers of mobile suits for protection.

Elsewhere, Maarek Steele an his MP v Gundam was still pitted in a desperate struggle against Silri's Bertigo. His heavier Fin Funnels were fairing poorly against her lighter, more numerous bits, despite their power advantage. Just as a Funnel suddenly exploded from an attack by the bits, Steele, flipped the Gundam over and fired backward at the Bertigo as it appeared behind him. Silri, merely leaned passed the attack, the verniers pushing the white suit away from the attack, and fired back from the internal beam rifles. Maarek found himself on the defensive and it didn't look good. Suddenly two more bits launched from the Bertigo, one from each arm rack. As they move to surround him, Maarek launched into a series of complicated manoeuvres to try and break free of the bits. Coming out of a particularly flashy spiral twist, Maarek was confronted by a single white bit right in front of the cockpit. As the barrel begun to glow, the world seemed to recede around him and he couldn't seem to move or even think.

"Commander!"

A sudden shout brought him back as a G-Cannon impacted his suit pushing him out of the line of fire. For his trouble, the beam from the bit skewered the mobile suit low in the torso. It was then that Steele recognised he voice. "Rend, why?"

He received no answer as the smaller mobile suit lit up with secondary explosions, forcing the Gundam back. The remainder of the team caught up and witnessed the G-Cannon's last moments. Sounds of grief echoed through the radio and Maarek tuned to Silri and cried, "Mark my waords, I will kill you!"

Drawing the large beam saber from the backpack and ignited it and charged the white mobile suit while the Jegans from the Wolf also attacked firing their beam rifles and shield missiles to cover their leader. Silri just grinned like a feral animal and met the attack head on.

Suddenly, space was torn by an enormous beam from behind the Federation lines. The attack opened a large hole in the Fandom lines, destroying four ships and a handful of mobile suits. On the bridge of the Victory, General Armstrong was stunned at the power of the beam. "Operator, were did that beam come from," she almost yelled.

Indeed, the Pericles had come and had fired it's Hyper Mega Particle Cannon to break the circle surrounding the Federation forces. On the bridge, Colonel James Krager sent a message to the Victory. "Glad we managed to make it in time, General. Now pleae make you escape, that wont hold the back for long."

"Thank you Colonel. All forces, make for the gap in the lines."

Krager acknowledge the praise with a salute and commanded, "All mobile weapons, launch and assist the Victory. Make sure as many of our allies as possible escape."

From all five catapults the ReZELs and the ReGZ launched and flew in formation toward the Fandom lines. Captain Tycho Celchu, in his red striped ReZEL, spoke to his squdron when they were all formed. "Ok guys and girls you heard the man, let's go!" He was responded to with various whoops and yells and Rogue Squadron shot towrad the Fandom.

By now, the Fandom commanders had also located the Pericles and about twenty Gaplants were inbound. As the monoeyed MAs tried to intercept the the ReZELs, Celchu and Horn both ducked under one as it passed, transformed to mobile suit mode and fired at the Gaplants back, destroying it in one shot in perfect tandem. Ayin also nailed another with the beam cannon of his ReGZs Back Weapon System. The other members of Rogue Squadron aslo either manged to take one of the Gaplants of or ward it off long enough for another to destroy it.

Only the timely intervention of the Pericles had saved the team from the Wolf. Rather than pursue into a fresh enemy, Silri had decide to back off, leaving five very battered mobile suits, most missing limbs or heads, with the MP v Gundam the worst off. They manged to limp back to the Grey Wolf under guard from two of the ReZEls and some others they picked up along the way.

Soon the squadron was among the thick of it, coving the remain ships, now only the Victory, Grey Wolf and one Clop as they escaped from the Fandom's encircling attack. Just as they were about to escape, the way was block by the Gwazine-class Asarum. General Armstrong ordered the Lohengrin to clear the way, and twin beams of red and white energy struck the Asarum, both fore and aft. The Stricken ship llisted slightly as the three remaining ships left the circle at full speed, trailing mobile suits. Soon the ships were beyond the reach of the Fandom force, and safe, for the time being.

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

((OOC: Sorry for the double post but the above is long enough I think.))

- Merciless -

As the SPARTANs changed their formation to an all-encompassing sphere, another Hambrabi was lost to the return fire. Switching their own tactics, the Fandom pilots moved to contain the mobile suits rather than take them head on. They circled the formation in MA mode, looking for gaps. When one of the blue suits fired, a Hambrabi would fire at it as quick as it could before the Planet Defensers closed back up.

Tyber and Urai, taken by surprise by the quick switch pulled by the enemy, were just as quick to avoid the sneak attack, Tyber by rising 'above' the Duraxyl's Mega Smasher and firing both Mega Particle cannons within the hands, firing down at the larger mobile weapon.

Urai had a harder time with the four Psyrods from the side and missiles from the front. Opening the thrusters as far as they would go, he brought the flexible shields forward to protect himself and charged the R-Jarja forward, so the Psyrods passed only meters behind him, and dipped below the missiles and charged the Dezpada, large beam sword held straight out in front of him.

Suddenly, the R-Jarja was forced to back off as three beams came between him and the Dezpada. They would find themselves surrounded by bits, as the Bertigo had returned, it's pilot having become curious enough to investigate the pressure she felt, now that the her first source of entertainment had proved... lacking.

"Silri, what is the meaning of this!" Urai cried in indignation.

"Sorry old man. This one is mine." Silri had found a playmate, and she would just love to play with him.

"Hmph, do as you please, witch" Backing off, Urai gave the Dezpada a wide berth, and headed to where Tyber had engaged the Duraxyl at full speed..

"Now, dance for me" Silri said to Melodius, and fired all twelve bits from around the monoeye Gundam.

While the combatants were to busy to notice, the crew of the Merciless, did not fail to note the escape of the Federation forces from their grasp. Seeing a chance to reinforce their commander, the captain ordered some more intact squads to Tyber's position. Three squads of four Crouda broke off from the main advance into Von Braun to reinforce the Fandom commander. The Merciless itself stayed back to coordinate the offensive.

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

"Commander, not good!" TM exclaimed loudly, barely managing to twist the large suit out of the way of the Byalant's next blasts but with one of its binders being blown away from the suit violently with a loud crashing noise, in turn countering with another large blast from the Mega Buster Rifle that pierced space around it; Seeing the R-Jarja turning towards it as well, TM sighed and hit a button --- sending all of the Taors Tail binders blasting away from the Duraxyll and flying in circles around it, then spreading out in Bit-like motions, sending a wider, denser volley of fire at both Tyber and Urai. "The Federation fleet's safely evacuated --- and now the Fandom are coming for us!"

That's all we need to do, then, Melodius agreed, and turned the Dezpada to face with the newcomer --- the Beltigo, its pilot's wild aura piquing Melodius' interest at once. This was going to be...interesting, if nothing else. "Right! Fall back! SPARTANs, retreating fire --- Shadow Company, report on your position---"

"Melodius!"

That momentarily distracted Melodius as the very last voice he expected to hear in this battle suddenly rang out in his ear...along with an answer to his previous inquiry, and he did not notice the first of the Beltigo's bits in his distraction; Only the sudden shaking of the Dezpada as its left leg was sheared right off the knee joint brought Melodius back to attention and rolling around, thrusting upwards in evasive manuevers --- and then turning back towards his left flank at three incoming drive flares from the Necronomicon's direction. Melodius sighed at that, derisively --- It was Shadow Company, all right, the Forbidden Gundam in Close Combat Mode moving foremost with both Geschmeidig Panzer binders deployed while firing its railguns, and the Raider Gundam directly behind it, Mjolnir swinging readily.

But it was who they were chasing that, to Melodius' surprise, brought a mixture of chagrin and happiness to his heart at the sight. Transformed into its sleek Waverider mode, swerving desperately to avoid the Forbidden and Raider's fire as shots blazed narrowly around it, was a blue-and-white MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam also heading towards his Dezpada. Melodius blinked, spinning the Dezpada subsequently and swerving erratically as the Beltigo's Bit fire erupted around the unit; he didn't recognize the unit itself as either part of the Federation garrison or the Fandom attack forces, and its signal was not registered as any faction he knew, so it was obviously a newcomer --- but to what end remained to be seen.

However, there was definitely no mistaking, in place of where its Hyper Mega Launcher would've gone, the Heart-shaped Magical Staff that protruded from underneath the Zeta Gundam's shield --- and only one person he and Tuxedo Mask knew would have such a thing in the first place. "Blaster Mari?" Melodius whispered at first, his voice louder and sounding deathly urgent as he glared forward. "That's no Fandom Mobile Suit! Shadow Company, break off --- Break off your current target immediately and assist the Duraxyll! Mari, what in Pelor's name are you doing back here!?"

"Who cares? The Magical Girl has come to save the day, and inspire hope to the outgunned once again!" Tuxedo Mask beamed, raising a fist triumphantly. "Unless she's come to save the day for them, which can be a problem."

In response, although unsure at first, the Forbidden and Raider broke off of Mari's tail in unison, turned right, and began charging straight for Tyber and Urai. With a brash exclamation of "Ожог!!!", Heavy Weapons Guy smirked in bloodlust as the Forbidden's Armfeuer Machineguns blazed continuously at Tyber Zann's Byalant while, behind him, the Raider Gundam suddenly leapt up, swung its arm, and launched the Mjolnir Hammer forward in follow-up at the R-Jarja.

-Mari-

Blaster Mari had to admit that, TM's snide comment aside, Melodius had a point. What was she doing here? Why had she, after Melodius had virtually kicked her off the Necronomicon all those weeks ago at Side 6, returned? And more importantly...why did Mari feel so dutiful when the prospect of helping the Necronomicon out of a jam came to her? It had been easy getting the Zeta Gundam afterwards --- the Zaku I was an antique, and very valuable in the eyes of a certain MS collector in Side 6. The money he had paid for the Zaku I had been more than enough for the Zeta Gundam, and he was even willing to let Mari keep the staff (and her identity); Of course, he had also proposed a number of best-left-unsaid things afterwards, the aftermath of which 'bloody and quite violent' described well enough and was equally best left unsaid. But afterwards...Mari felt empty. She wasn't sure she wanted to go home just yet, but she wasn't quite willing to participate in the war, either. She was an MS pilot with no purpose.

Perhaps that was why, Mari sighed wistfully; Like Melodius had said before, she was a sane person in an insane world, and even so she needed to find a path. That Melodius was also the sanest person she's met since the whole mess involving the Necronomicon by far certainly didn't help matters, though, and probably pushed Mari back to his side even though...

She really should be focusing first, Mari slapped herself mentally. The Zeta Gundam transformed back into its MS mode after her pursuers had gone after greener pastures and, momentarily left standing there, stared at the Dezpada with its Magical Staff in its hand...and then the Zeta spun as Mari took a deep breath, twirling elegantly in circles, and stopped --- pointing the staff at Silri's Beltigo. "Maybe we'll talk about it later, Melodius, once the danger has passed and the day is won..." Mari smiled at that; It was her, at least. It was still her talking and not TM. "...But in the name of the heart---

"The Fandom must be punished! Beam Confuse~~~!"

The frame of Mari's Magical Staff suddenly glowed at that, flashed with a burst of magical pink light, and energy blasted outwards as Mari slashed her Staff downwards diagonally once; A spinning pink Beam Saber blade lanced out towards the formation of Bits, and as it was almost between them, Mari's staff glowed again and fired two Beam Rifle shots at the spinning, almost illusory Beam Saber. As the beam shots impacted the Beam Saber, the energy dispersed and intensified into waves of beam energy that lashed out at the Bits to detonate them simultaneously...

-Melodius-

Mari's words only made his heart lift and Melodius frowned at that --- Master was going to kill him for being Charmed so easily without a Will Save --- but the hint of a smile never left his face as he turned back towards the Beltigo.

Then he felt the wild aura again and Melodius' smile faded. "Right. Time to stop playing around with you."

System Fafnir, activate!

Then the Dezpada's engines burst forth as Melodius' senses and mental cognition expanded within the power of System Fafnir, and the Dezpada shot downwards in a blaze, swerving and spinning between the Beltigo's shots; As the Dezpada then fired multiple spreads of shots from the binders' Beam Cannon at the Beltigo, its Psyrods lanced out again and, snaking and darting about and around any remaining Bits with even faster motion and control than before, began emitting powerful Sea Serpent-like electromagnetic bursts of lightning around the area, and at the Beltigo to immobilize it. At the same time, as the order came, the Mercuriuses and Vayeates moved in unison and began falling back, trailing cover fire at the Hambrabis as they remained in formation; The Vayeates, in turn, charged their Beam Cannons one more time and, after a pause, fired together, sending a volley of large, intense charged shots from a distance at the Merciless and the Fandom ships to keep their artillery barrage at bay.

(she wasn't exactly 'charging' the fleet it's just she won't be able to escape it and the atmosphere)-Kellen Cypher-

"what the..." Even though she wasn't facing the fleet directly one of her rear cameras allowed her to see it's withdrawal. Why would it leave? why would they let her "escape". Not that floating without fuel in Space was exactly a promising prospect, yet the fleet and it's master had no reason to let her live that long.

Before she could make heads or tales of the situation, a voice broke through both the thinning Minovsky particles and into her mind. Most of what it said was nonsense, either it didn't matter or didn't make much sense to her. However, His penultimate words were easy to understand. He was offering her some kind of deal or shelter.

"What option; work with you?" Kellen almost literally spit at the idea. "Why would I do that? You just killed almost everyone I worked with, The Federation has 'tricked' and abandoned me and has certainly placed a death sentence on my head for 'betraying' them. I'd rather die than go back to that."

Perhaps she made it sound noble, but any threat she made now would be a bluff. Even though she'd managed to escape the gravity well the Soleares had spent nearly all it's propellant. Kellen had plenty of energy and ammo but she couldn't go anywhere or do anything with it.

_________________"If You are a man you'll do what's important before you grieve" -Captain Harlock

"I like the SAGA. Its what Rambo would pilot if he was in Gundam 00" -Kylern